1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a positron emission tomography (PET)-radiofrequency ablation (RFA) complex medical device and a treatment method using the same, and more particularly, to a PET-RFA complex medical device which simultaneously performs the monitoring and thermotherapy of a target, that is, obtains, in real time, location information of a target to be treated by using PET and treats the target using heat by focusing the heat on the target using RFA instead of inserting an electrode into the target, and a treatment method using the PET-RFA complex medical device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Currently, radiation therapy is being widely used for cancer diagnosis and treatment. However, radiation therapy adversely affects patients due to a large amount of radiation exposure. For example, radiation can cause DNA changes, cancer, nausea, headaches, etc. depending on the radiation dose.
Therefore, international efforts are being made to reduce the amount of radiation exposure that patients will receive. For example, treatments for liver cancer include liver transplantation, liver resection, percutaneous alcohol injection, and radiofrequency ablation (RFA). In particular, RFA is a method of treating a cancer cell without surgery by generating radiofrequency waves and burning the cancer cell with heat generated from the radiofrequency waves.
FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating cancer detection using conventional positron emission tomography (PET). FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating cancer treatment using conventional RFA.
Referring to FIG. 1, PET is a method of capturing an image of metabolic processes to diagnose any problem with metabolism. In PET, a medicine combined with a radioactive isotope that emits positrons is injected into a human body P as indicated by reference numeral 11. Then, the medicine is traced using a detector 12 to identify the distribution of the medicine within the body P. A PET device has high specificity and sensitivity to cancer. However, PET uses radiation during a scan time for obtaining cancer information (e.g., location, size, etc.). Radiation is also used during radiation therapy for curing cancer detected by PET.
Referring to FIG. 2, RFA is a method of removing a cancer cell 5 by inserting an electrode 21 into human tissue T, generating radiofrequency waves from the electrode 21, and burning the cancer cell 5 with heat 22 generated from the radiofrequency waves. In RFA, the electrode 21 is inserted into a region around the cancer cell 5, and then the cancer cell 5 is heated. Therefore, RFA is a limited method depending on a body part and carries the risks of infection and bleeding.
In this regard, it is required to significantly reduce the amount of radiation exposure by using heat, instead of radiation, in cancer treatment. In addition, it is required to trace the exact location of a cancer cell (i.e., a target) using PET and then remotely heat the cancer cell instead of inserting the electrode 21 into the human body P as in RFA. In particular, whenever a patient is treated, the location of a target to be treated may be changed. Therefore, it is required to trace the location of the target in real time and treat the target immediately.
In other words, imaging diagnosis for identifying the location and size of a tumor and thermotherapy that replaces radiation therapy should be performed simultaneously. That is, it is required to reduce treatment time and the amount of radiation exposure by simultaneously performing the monitoring and thermotherapy of a target.